People often complain that there is much in the Christian religion to frighten guests away from a worship service of the church. They are right. There is much that Christianity says, does, and sings in its worship services to make the experience quite opaque. But that is hardly the big impediment to becoming a Christian. The content of the gospel preaching is the big hump which keeps most people from becoming believers in Christ and practicing members of His church. The content of the biblical gospel is in no way immediately attractive. Even though we have "niced-up" the Christmas story with sentimentalized depictions of the birth of a child in the bucolic poverty of the ancient near east, there still remains the stumbling block that a young Jewish woman claimed to conceive the Child by the power of the Holy Spirit, who would be called the Son of God, and that He would be the Word of God become flesh to dwell among us. This is a preposterous claim on the face of it. There is no way to "nice-it-up."

 

This too might be considered the least of the impediments to the proclamation, for the apostles not only claimed that God was with us in Christ, but also testified that He died, rose, ascended, and will come again in judgment. Add to this that those who claimed this faith as their own would surely become subject to persecution, losing property, prestige, and even life itself at the hands of the enemies of the cross of Christ. The church proclaimed the ultimate program of deferred gratification, promising suffering, crosses, and death in this life, and glory, honor, and life only in the world to come. Add to this that this was all unseen, and known only through the remarkable proclamation of the Word of God by the Apostles of Christ and Christ Himself. All the while this was preached, the church grew explosively, despite and perhaps because of the promise of suffering and death in this life and hope for life in the world to come. Now we're talking real impediments.

 

Unfortunately, the westernized churches of the modern world have turned their backs upon this proclamation of suffering in this life, opting instead for a this-worldly gospel of prosperity and ease. One of the purveyors of this false gospel published a best-selling book entitled, Your Best Life Now. The title says it all. Here there is no suffering and cross, but only ease and personal glory. Imagine if the Apostle Paul had tried to sell this idea while he himself was undergoing this list: "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure" ( 2Co 11:24-27). This could not be described as anything like a best life now. There is nothing here about a best-selling book. If Paul was the example of the triumphant life, no one could have been attracted to the message he was peddling. But Paul was not a spiritual peddler. He was an Apostle of Christ. He proclaimed the truth at enormous peril to himself, without worrying if it would sell with the public. He proclaimed the truth of the suffering and death of Christ and that we, His followers, should also take up our cross and follow Him. That is the best life now and forever.